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Another variation to the ABC song

by Angeles
(Morocco)

I use the ABC song with three words that start with each letter ending each "song" with the sound of the letter in turn. So, for example, with b it is something like:

"B is for ball.
B is for blue.
B is for balloon.
/b/, /b/, /b/."

For vowels I keep the short sound (I teach PK-4) and for those letters that have not many options (like X) I just repeat the letter. Sometimes I include the children's names that start with the letter.

In the beginning, we sing the song for each letter, maybe through g or h. After that it gets to be too long and I do that just for review but the kids always sing the song of whatever letter they are interested in by themselves. I am amazed that towards the end of the alphabet they start singing the song even for those letters that we have not yet studied and they come up with the correct sound.

When I thought of this I was getting bored with singing just the ABC's, especially that the kids didn't seem to get much out of it. They just sang rot. What is easy about it is that they already know the melody. The first day I started singing my version I saw their faces showing a big smile and they easily joined in.